Will of Susannah (x) Ray

Susannah Ray left enslaved people and furniture to stepmother Sally for life, then brother David, and provided for other relatives.

Kind of paper

Will

Testator

Susannah (x) Ray (printed SUSANNAH (x) RAY)

Dated

4 June 1831

Proved

August 1831 court

Family named

David Ray (brother); Sally Robertson (sister wife of Joseph Robertson); Joseph Robertson; Sally Ray (step-mother)

Also left something

Lydia McKee (wife of Rankin McKee); John Robertson (sons of James Robertson); Michael Robertson (sons of James Robertson); James Ray; John Ray; Peggy Jane Ray

Executor

Richardson Nichols

Witnesses

Robert Reding; J.H.Mangum

Enslaved people not named

Enslaved people

Money and goods

household furniture

Also named

Rankin McKee; George Ray (dec’d); Joseph Ray; James Robertson (deceased)

In the paper’s words

“weak of body”

Names and places are given as the abstract writes them, spelling and all. This record has not been checked against the will book.

Where to find it

• Orange County Will Book E, page 248.
• Abstract: Ruth Herndon Shields, Abstracts of Wills Recorded in Orange County, North Carolina, 1800–1850 (1958), page 143.
• Also listed in Mark Chilton, “Wills Recorded in Orange County, NC 1756–1893” (Wandering through the NC Piedmont, 2019), an index of the will books with references to the court minutes.
• Microfilm at the Orange County Public Library, Wall Local History Collection: reel 80003, “Record of Wills, 1822–1851, Vols. E, F” (State Archives film).